The Legend of Dragoon Review

When I first started playing The Legend of Dragoon, I told myself, "OK, when I write up my review, I won't focus on its similarity to Final Fantasy VII (FF7) like everyone else has." Well, here I am writing my review, and all I can think about is its similarity to FF7, and how stale and unoriginal the whole experience is. This game is such a rip-off of Square's FF7 that I can't believe Sony hasn't been taken to court for copyright infringement. Three years in the making and over 100 brains on the development team—and this is the result? In a year full of copycat RPGs, Dragoon was touted as being a blockbuster game—one of the must-haves. Instead, it's the ultimate example of unimaginative game design—firmly cementing its place as the crown jewel of the many recent mediocre RPGs.

Here we go again with another case of "here we go again." Remember Cloud and Tifa from FF7? They've both gone to video game heaven and have been reincarnated as Dart and Shana in Dragoon. Once again we have two childhood friends—a strong-willed, spikey-haired boy and a cute, timid, dark-haired girl—who have just gone through puberty and now kind of like each other. How many more "epic" games will revolve their plots around such a ridiculous relationship? We think Shana loves Dart, but we never know because the characters aren't mature enough to express the idea, and neither is the game. However, we do know that if Shana does indeed love Dart, she'd have a hard time telling him because he thinks of her as a "little sister." They obviously have some issues to sort through before planning a wedding. It doesn't matter anyway. Dart would rather be chopping up monsters with his big sword than wasting time courting Shana, and that's exactly what he does. Shana tags along because she wants to be where ever Dart is. Is that love? I guess that's as good as it gets in videogames.

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. Dragoon's definition of love spares us from reading more of its poorly translated dialogue, once again proving that the genre still hasn't evolved past Final Fantasy II is some respects. The characters use the word "bastard" a lot, and there's even a Bastard Sword! I guess the idea of an illegitimate sword is a new one, or does it mean that only bastards can use the sword? That would make Dart the first bastard hero in videogames wouldn't it? Either way, it's the extent to which Dragoon breaks new ground.

But let's not focus solely on the one-dimensional characters and bad writing when there are so many other aspects of Dragoon that follow proven RPG conventions. How about the look of the game, which mirrors FF7 in practically every way imaginable? The graphics are made up of pre-rendered, still images—on top of which the polygonal characters move about. Of course, even when your party grows to as many as six characters, you only see the main character (Dart) walking around. Certain events cause the rest of the crew to magically emerge from Dart's body as if they've been taking up residence in his undergarments. And even though the whole group always travels together, only three of them can fight at once. I guess if you could control more than that during a battle, the game wouldn't be like FF7 anymore, and we can't have that can we?

The battles take place in 3-D, and are randomly—annoyingly—triggered. You'll know when monsters are attacking when the frame suddenly freezes and the colors bleed off the screen. It's a very slow process that's followed by an even slower one—the perspective lazily panning around the battlefield before settling on a fixed viewpoint from which we can watch the fight unfold. For all of this build-up, the actual battles themselves are pretty anti-climatic. The bad guys never attack in groups of more than three, and they're usually composed of small, pesky critters—not the impressive encounters the game makes them out to be. Afterwards, we get a shot of the good guys celebrating their victory by twirling their weapons in the air to triumphant music. In case you're wondering, we experienced the exact same scenario in FF7. If you think you'll get tired of sitting through that after a while, run for the hills, because in Dragoon battles are a constant, and they follow the same format every time.

I should mention that some very, very minor changes were made in the process of ripping off FF7, probably so Sony can say their game is just different enough to justify its existence. Limit Breaks have been replaced in Dragoon by Additions, which require timely button presses during battle to execute more powerful attacks. It's really just a cheap attempt at creating more interest in the boring combat sequences, and it doesn't work. Normal attacks are so weak that Additions must be used regularly in order to inflict any kind of significant damage, and some boss characters even punish you for not getting the button presses right by negating your attack and returning the favor—which actually defeats the whole purpose of the feature to begin with. Furthermore, these special moves don't look very cool when performed, and they have all have dumb names like "Double Slash" and "Double Punch."

Magical item attacks have also been given a certain level of interactivity in that you're forced to jam on the X button to take off more enemy hit points. As a result of this brilliant feature, my fairly new Dual Shock controller now malfunctions on a regular basis. Other variations in gameplay were just thrown in to make the game needlessly difficult—like your party only being able to carry a maximum of 32 items. This makes absolutely no sense when you consider the size to which the good-guy group eventually grows—a group of six should be able to carry at least twice that number. But it's just an arbitrary setting, serving no logical purpose except that it defies the Final Fantasy rules just enough as to not get Sony into legal trouble.

Through all of my Dragoon bashing, I've failed to mention the game's namesake, the Dragoons themselves, who do little more than provide the game with a vehicle to show off some snazzy special effects and allow the characters to cast magic spells. We've seen the word "dragoon" used in other RPGs, but in this instance a Dragoon is a unique person found worthy enough to control the Dragon Spirit, which gives the individual untold power during combat. Of course all of the members of your party eventually acquire this power, leading me to believe that it's not as special as the game would have you believe. In fact, the power stones that give the Dragoons their power are passed around among the characters in the game like so many joints. In the end, the concept of transforming into a Dragoon doesn't affect the gameplay in any major way, simply because all of the characters can do it, and the game is adjusted accordingly.

Dragoon is four discs full of contrived storytelling, repetitious action and RPG cliches. More importantly, it's an effective lesson on how to cash-in on a popular game franchise. Sony was hoping to unleash an RPG milestone on the gaming populace, and ended up embarrassing their entire internal development division with a game that not only refuses to distinguish itself from anything else out there, but steals all of its ideas from an established bestseller. If The Legend of Dragoon is expected to leave any kind of legacy, it will be as Sony's attempt at buying their way into a crowded RPG market. Rating: 5.0 out of 10.

According to ESRB, this game contains animated blood, animated violence.

Parents should be aware of the game's standard RPG violence, most of which is pretty tame. Of more concern is the sorry excuse for dialogue, which will have your children reading bad writing in no time! And to those who want to teach their kids the word "bastard"—go out and buy The Legend Of Dragoon immediately!

RPG fans who can't get enough of Final Fantasy VII will have a veritable feast with The Legend Of Dragoon. The game achieves perfection in capitalizing on (stealing) everything that made Final Fantasy VII so popular. It's unoriginality taken to the extreme, and it overshadows any good points the game might have had otherwise. That should be enough warning for those of you who value your time, and to even for those who don't.

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I think they should really make a remake of Legend of Dragoon for the Playstation 2 it was and still is a great rpg for the playstation but i would really like to see it on the playstation 2 with all new graphics and voice's in it not just silent words.

I really try to keep out of the constant online bickering, but when I see something written out of pure, blind hate, it makes me wonder why their is so much stupidity in the world. There is not much Ican stomach saying about this review, but he is right. This game is un-original. WHO CARES? Play the game for fun and stop overanylyzing fictional characters! One thing I can,t let go , though, Is the comment on the Bastard sword. In this man's rush to spew hate, he forgot to do enough research to find out that their is such a thing as a Bastard Sword in real life, and it has been mentioned in many video games, movies, and even books. This is a classic example of why more research is needed before releasing something just to sully the name of an otherwise fun game. Great battle system, acceptable plot line, highly addictive, and extremely fun.

when i bought lod many years ago and played it for the first time, like you i didn't much like the game i thought it was boring and a little repetitive. if you would have played through the whole game and watched the story unfold you would realize how great the game actually was. i loved the story line so much that i couldn't just play the game once i have beat it several times and still plug in the old playstation every once in awhile just to remind myself how much i loved the game. in your review you talk about how much the game is like ff7 which i also played and beat several times. i dont see how you could compare the two in any way shape or form. the storyline was completely original and in no way was anything like the storyline in ff7. another thing the game may have been rendered very much the same way if you look at the graphics style. but i believe especially for the time that the graphics in this game far outdid any game made up to then, when you walk around the backdrop scenes look almost real. i would have really loved some improvement on the graphics on the character models but playing the game and enjoying it made that a non factor for me. the addition system also was a huge step in rpg gaming considering there had never been an interactive battle system in any rpg previously. and if anything squaresoft square enix whatever you want to call it has copied sony in that way since the games release. you also compared the battle systems and said that was a rip off too, sure you had to wait through a boring scene as you went into random battles and i agree it did take a long time and i would have much rather them have changed that. look at the two games battle menus magic in lod is not like ff7 at all where each individual uses diff magic depending on what materia you equip in you weapon/armor slots. in lod you select magic from your items, how is that the same. how is an addition the same as a break limit. in lod you press x to perform stunning combos, in ff7 you take damage and wait for your bar to fill up to unleash a devestating blow. i don't see how thats the same. you commented about a bastard sword as well. almost every rpg i have ever played has a bastard sword including ff7 and theres a such thing as a bastard sword in a real life. seriously i believe your review was a little biased. you really have to play through at least the end of the first disk to get a good feel for the game. and whats with the rip on all you characters being able to turn into dragoons. i thought that was the best aspect of the game. it was the main point that drew me into buying the game. what would you just rather have one beast and a bunch of fairies seriously. and the whole thing about only being able to use 3 characters at a time, honestly i have never played an rpg were you use all your characters in every battle. and it also isn't true that the most enemies you face at a time is 3. there were many times i was faced up against 4 to 8 enemies even. in my years of gaming i have played almost every ff, lod, star ocean, xenosaga, and many other rpgs and would like to thing of myself as somewhat as an rpg conissoure. i agree that there were some very very small flaws in a few aspects of the game. but even to this date lod is my most beloved game and i can't believe anyone could compare it to ff7 although so many did. it makes no sense to me really. it had the most epic storyline out of any rpg i've played the battle system itself evolved the future of rpg gaming. and i spent more hours enjoying this game than any other rpg. and thats what an rpg is supposed to be. really i beg you plug in lod and play the whole game for what it is and i guarentee you'll change your mind. especially nearer the end of the game i got to explore areas that were unlike anything i've ever seen in an rpg scenes that you could interact w/ and float on top of objects and walk upside down and on rocks floating around in thin air. i mean seriously i don't understand how your review could bag on a game that is so wonderful and be so harsh. i'm not one of those dragoon nazi's or whatever you call them i'm just a kid who played the game and loved it for what it was, i would even love to see a sequel or at least a remake w/ next gen graphics. i would be as happy as a fat kid w/ cake.

Wow, this review continues to get comments. Too funny. For your information, I addressed many of your gripes in a completely separate feature dedicated to all the hate mail this review received. However, I did not write this review out of "pure, blind hate." I wrote it because I played the game, and I thought it was basically garbage. I could have given it a much lower score, believe me, but I tried to give some credit for the relatively high production values, even though the game didn't contain one original idea, and the gameplay was completely derivative and boring.

Ben Hopper's review of Legend of Dragoon was probably the worst I have seen. Comparing it to Final Fantasy 7 in that it had the main guy character and main female character fall in love? Wtf, a lot of RPGs do that. Most of the Final Fantasy games do that as well as other RPGs. I just know by reading his reviews I won't listen to anything he says. I'm willing to bet that either Sony paid him to make half-assed comparisons to their games or he just not that knowledgeable about RPGs. I give his review a 2/10 and I give the game a 9/10.

Legend of Dragoon is without a question of a doubt the greatest RPG ever, i repeat ever released. Yeah sure the character graphics may have been pretty crappy but this game allows for hours of enjoyment and fun as you learn and discover more about these ORIGINAL characters :). I mean really look at some of the RPG's that are out even now? None worth mentioning on the 360 nor the PS3 and the PS2 barly scraped in with FFX. People should realli play and beat this game before passing judgement

Damn, I really can't believe he said that about The Legend of Dragoon. To clear one thing up, EVERY RPG IS ALIKE IN SOME WAY. Almost every Final Fantasy is exactly the same and to compare this to Final Fantasy 7, which is the most over-rated game of all time and came out 3 years before The Legend Of Dragoon is retarded. I'm a person who plays a lot of games and The Legend Of Dragoon is by far my favorite game of all time and everyone who played it agrees. 10/10

Damn, I really can't believe he said that about The Legend of Dragoon. To clear one thing up, EVERY RPG IS ALIKE IN SOME WAY. Almost every Final Fantasy is exactly the same and to compare this to Final Fantasy 7, which is the most over-rated game of all time and came out 3 years before The Legend Of Dragoon is retarded. I'm a person who plays a lot of games and The Legend Of Dragoon is by far my favorite game of all time and everyone who played it agrees. 10/10

Wow, I'm sold. Obviously this is a criticism of a higher caliber than I could ever muster. This comment gets eight out of seven SparklePuppies(tm)!!

I have heard some unfair reviews of this game but this one just raises the bar to a whole new level. it is absurd. Legend of dragoon is not a ripoff of final fantasy 7(in fact, it is infinitely superior to final fantasy 7). I could say that im pleased with this review and, how can i not be with such great points as "LOD rips of FF7 becuase there is a female and male character that are in love each-other" or "LOD is a ripoff becuase you have 3 character in the battle at once?" yes, you could say that im pleased with this review...... of course that would be lie of the century. honestly this review is not backed up by any real logic or reasoning. It is just ramblings of a bias, narrow-minded FF7 fan-boy. you arent the first and you wont be the last. I am curious though. how far did you actually play into this game before throwing out this heinous review? I have a hard time imagining that you actually played the game for more than an hour before releasing this review. I beat both final fantasy 7 and LOD multiple times and i can honestly say that LOD surpassed FF7 in every way imaginable. the battle-mechanics are more in depth, the music is better, the graphics are better, the storyline is better and the overall experience is better. Its funny that you claim LOD to be cliche when all the final fantasy games pretty much follow the same basic plot. There is always a plucky main character, some hot love interest, tsome powerfull darkness threatening the world, a badass silent character, and the constant battle of good and evil. the battle between good and evil, light and darkness has been a basic premise for storylines since the dawn of mankind. how is it suddenly an original trait only attributed to the final fantasy series? The truth is, LOD's storyline shares absolutely no similarities with FF7. you can lie to yourself all you want but there are no analogous characters to compare to those in final fantasy 7. dart is nothing like cloud. Shanna is nothing like tifa. lavitz is nothing like cid. the storylines have no similarities and the setting is nothing like that of FF7. this is a pathetic, invalid review and you should be ashamed for making it.

Hi, I was just looking around trying to find forums relating to LOD when I came across your reviews. I can see why your piss the f*ck off..."THE GRAPHICS FOR THE GAME SUCKS! NOTHING LIKE FF" but the thing is, your liking ff more because of its better quality. I'm not talking about the graphic for the story line because LOD's story line clip kills ff, but unfortunately LOD role playing graphics doesn't look as pleasant and better like ff's. I know that you like ff more because of its quality. I can tell, because from your review, you wrote, "When I first started playing The Legend Of Dragoon, I told myself, "OK, when I write up my review, I won't focus on its similarity to Final Fantasy VII (FF7) like everyone else has." Well, here I am writing my review, and all I can think about is its similarity to FF7, and how stale and unoriginal the whole experience is." I find it funny how you said you wont focus on its similarity to ff but you still did? I bet you read someones review before you wrote yours like you said earlier, you wont compare it like the others? You didn't like the LOD quality and gave up on it.

The reason why your so mad about LOD is not because of the story line, you probably just added the storyline saying it was dumb because you hated the graphics. The reason why I'm repeating myself about the graphics is because that's what your aiming for when you playing LOD but sadly the graphic suck d*ck so you got bias and compared the two games. Maybe if you didn't play LOD rite before you played ff7 you would had liked LOD way more. I bet the first thing that came to your mind was "fck this quality, I'm just gonna skip through all the talking and videos and just beat this game and read other reviews before I write mine"

This review is just wrong. When you first start out the game it does seem like it's a rip-off of FFVII. But as you progress, it becomes less and less like FFVII. Unlike the previously mentioned game, it has characters that are actually likeable and whose backstories don't seem cheesy and fake. No one in the game is truly evil with the exception of the final boss, and everyone does what they do for a reason. Even Emperor Doel has his motives, and Albert struggles to reconcile his memories of the uncle he loved with the actions this man took before he died, as well as whether, and how, he should forgive him. Rose is another fascinating character, and it's really heartwarming to see her open up to the other characters over the course of the game. If, like this reviewer, you only played the first few hours or the first disc of the game, you wouldn't be able to understand the true goodness of it. The plot, though fascinating, really gets rolling in the third and fourth discs. As for the attack system, it's actually fun for some, though others may find it boring. And no, it's not hard. It's quite simple, and the later additions are cool, complex, and have a wonderful rhythmic quality to mastering them. It's almost like you're strumming the chords of a harp which directs the characters in battle; the song of victory. The game has many flaws, but that's understandable since it was a breakthrough in many ways. I'm pretty sure this was one of the very first rpgs to feature voice acting. Despite its flaws, LoD has something FFVII and many others do not; it has soul, and characters that you actually care about. The gameplay is also fun for many. So please, reviewers, make sure that you actually finish the game before judging it. As for the victory poses, so what? Kingdom Hearts, another great game, had them too. Even if LoD is based on FFVII, it surpasses it in every way. This reviewer should spend less time nitpicking at tiny, insignificant details that don't affect quality of play and actually finish the games he's going to review. I can't believe anyone would be so lazy doing something that they're getting paid for. The battles in this game were truly epic, and if the reviewer had taken the time to slowly play his way through the game instead of already making up his mind beforehand that he was going to hate it, then he would have enjoyed this game quite well. Alas, many critics are too snooty (thinking they're much better-cultured than others despite making a ridiculously small income) to actually enjoy the same magnificent works that others gain so much satisfaction from. And, as someone with an IQ of over 140, don't even bother calling me an idiot for liking this game. To each his own tastes, but if you hate the game so much that you can't even get far enough to unlock the cooler additions, then you shouldn't have bothered to write this review.

there is no way you played the entire game, and your review shows that as clear as day. if you had played the game, you would have known that there are cooler additions later on. look, I can understand if you hate the game, but that doesn't give you the right to call its fans Nazis! I find that pretty offensive, considering that the Nazis killed millions of Jews whereas Dragoon fans are just calling out one reviewer for not actually playing the entire game before writing a review. there are too many reviewers like you, who are afraid to break from the opinions of other critics, who are biased as soon as they see another review of whatever they're going to be reviewing. Us Dragoon fans have every reason to criticize your review. You criticized a game near and dear to our hearts, which holds a special value for us who played the game as children, in a way that shows that you didn't even bother to finish the game. That is simply unacceptable. If you wrote a review saying "Kingdom Hearts is complete crap! Even if had the permission to do it, it ripped off of the storylines of the FF games and Disney movies and had little originality." without finishing the game, you would get the same response. You only have yourself to blame; if you had finished the game then you wouldn't be receiving these harsh comments

I saw your comment from February 2009 and beg to differ. You got some overly-rude responses from e-mail, which is unfortunate. Yet, you failed to address the legitimate claims some of the nicer people made. Unless I missed another link, I did not see any explanation for your objections to the Legend of Dragoon having random battles, a three-team party, or victory poses. Even today, many RPG contain these elements. I fail to see why LoD’s are *so* much worse.

And, I think it makes sense for the characters to have rather normal Additions while they are not in Dragoon Form. It shows the difference between their human strength and the strength they possess when they utilize the aid of a dragon. I like the “tone-downed” take. Not every RPG cast needs to have earth-shattering explosions or whole planets being tossed about when the player executes a simple, fairly normal attack command.

Anyways, this is connected to a post I just left on Dale's review. Your review seemed pretty harsh. I believe you could have looked for/pointed out more of the good.

Thanks for your comments, Kat, but I don't see the reason to explain my objections to minor details like the random battles and victory poses, simply because I had already stated that they were just further evidence of how the game blatantly imitated Final Fantasy VII. Seriously, it surprises that there are still fans out there who refuse to acknowledge this pretty obvious fact. Sony clearly wasn't trying to do anything original with The Legend Of Dragoon. They were merely trying to shamelessly capitalize on the popularity of Final Fantasy VII. My review was harsh, but I stand by it. In fact, I think I should have given it an even lower score.

By the way, is it a coincidence that we haven't seen a sequel to this game? Even lesser known RPGs like Breath Of Fire, Star Ocean and Golden Sun got sequels. Could it be at The Legend Of Dragoon was just a crappy game after all?

Actually, I prefer and seek out standalone titles, so I’ve never been concerned with a prequel, sequel, or remake. I first noticed the above when Resident Evil 5 was introduced. I don’t want to feel as if I’m following a never-ending storyline. I want to play games that have a beginning and a concrete ending. To me, The Legend of Dragoon is a pretty compact title (story wise). There are RPG, Final Fantasy 8, for instance that I’ve recently re-played and didn’t enjoy all that much, but LoD manages to be one of the games that I still have fun with 9+ years after its release date.

Personally, if I were to write my own review of the game I would have pointed out the stark linearity, tacky FMV voiceovers, and text errors as its only low points. In my mind, random battles, victory poses, and three-team groups are niggling characteristics; especially since you can find them in RPG today. I’ve completed Final Fantasy 7 as well, but don’t see the strict resemblances that you and others do when it comes to the plot. However, I’m not angry with your review. I hope you didn’t take my comments the wrong way. I believe we’ll just have to agree to disagree though.

One last thing - Have you ever written a review for Final Fantasy 7? I noticed your interjection about the PS1 game. It’s not one of my favorites and I mostly concur with Dale Weir’s Second Opinion on the title. However, I’m hard-pressed to find people who feel the same way. I know LoD fans can become defensive about average to low-scoring reviews, but I think FF 7 fans take it to a whole different level. So, I can understand if you don’t wish for another slew of immature e-mails.

No worries, Kat. I'm not offended at all by your comments. However, I do want to point out that the similarities between The Legend Of Dragoon and Final Fantasy VII don't lie in the plot, but in the presentation and gameplay. If you just sit down and play the two games back to back, I think you'll quickly see just how much The Legend Of Dragoon steals from Final Fantasy VII. This isn't a bad thing inherently. Lots of games use older games as inspiration, but to me, The Legend Of Dragoon came off as a completely unoriginal role playing game, especially at a time when games like Grandia and Skies Of Arcadia were genuinely fresh and fun.

This doesn't mean that I think Final Fantasy VII is a great game. I just think The Legend Of Dragoon was an obvious ripoff. I think a lot of people wrongly thought that just because I compared The Legend Of Dragoon to Final Fantasy VII that I think FFVII is some kind of masterpiece. I've never reviewed FFVII, but I've actually never been a fan of the later Final Fantasy games. I grew up playing FFI and FFII, which I really liked at the time, but quickly grew tired of the lack of gameplay innovation in the Final Fantasy series.

Oh, I didn’t believe you were favoring Final Fantasy 7 in the first place. I saw where you said you didn’t like the seventh title very much on *A Game Critic’s Nightmare*. For me, it’s just odd to encounter someone who doesn’t revere the game. I think it’s a fair product; not one I’m going to hang onto, but I tend to avoid its fan-base and sequels. FF 7: Advent Children was ineffective an aimless. Outside of the highly refined graphics, I don’t understand its popularity.

Anyway, thanks for clearing up the similarities portion. I was waiting for that kind of response. I’ve seen people balance LoD to FF 7, but never follow through on what comparisons they (precisely) have. I’ll try playing them back to back when I have some spare time.

Well, I’ll be on my way. I think I’ve taken up enough of your time. Thanks!

Not replying just didnt know how else to post. I know this is 2 years too late but I just randomly decided I wanted to play an old rpg at 5:50 am, went on google and came across this board. I have both lod and ff7 and having beaten both of them several times. I enjoy each for its own reasons and dont understand why people complain about what THEY dont like about either game. If you start playing a game and dont like it, dont play it. Anyway heres why I like each one.

LOD had the addition system which was different for each character and gave you a reason to train more, and the dragoon attack/magic was cool. My only complaint at all really is the lack of any end game exploration. I destroyed the towers/polter sword stuff and collecting the startdust was probably harder than the faust battle itself but after that theres NOTHING else to do but go to the moon, dont get me wrong ive played with almost every team combo you can I just wish there was more to do

FF7 had materia which gave way for customization of your characters, I like final fantasys where the main characters arent all humans (red x111, kimahri, I really liked ff8 but I wish there were a wider range of characters not just a bunch of highschool kids.) Also how there were characters you didnt even have to get in the main story (yuffie vincent total of 8-9 to choose from if I remember right), but my selling point on why ff7 is *slightly* better has to be the exploration factor and the weapons. Emerald, ruby, and ultimate weapon were cool ideas, to have these giant creatures roaming around the globe/ocean/desert and having them be extremely hard (at least if you dont know how to exploit them) I love that aspect.

Anyways I would rather not critique these two old rpgs for what they lacked but rather compliment what they contributed at the time they came out. Both games were great for their time and had a lot of good ideas. Although theyre similar, I have to be in a certain mood to want to play one or the other. What I want to see is a next gen console make a game that mixes the best parts of these two games and includes all important rpg aspects, good replay value, non linear gameplay, optional bosses, good mix of exploration and not having you search for 20 hours all the good stuff, character developement, good story. Idk im done ranting. Goodnight

I played LoD recently because I heard it was a very good game. Many people recommended it to me and I thought 'Oh, it must be really nice!'
but sadly, I got very dissapointed.
I've played plenty of Rpgs, It's my fave game genre.

As regard LoD, I found the story line quite unoriginal, and the characters weren't interesting at all. You could basically describe them by their armor colour. therefore, I found it very hard to sympatize with them.
I sort of forced myself to keep on playing just to see if it would get better, but in the end, I failed to see why people liked it so much.

I know this comment might enrage LoD fans. considering that many of them played it in their childhood and this game probably means a lot to them (I have a couple of childhood games I love and I know I'd feel bad to see negative comments about them) but this is intended to be just a mere opinion of someone who tried it and didn't like it.

I sort of agree with Ben here. Maybe he was rough in delivering the message, but I believe it is accurate.

With the review here, I heard about this game ages ago and only found it for very very cheap on a garage sale (2 bucks) say completely worth the price for sure.... but does it worth more ? ABSOLUTELY NO

Overall from start to finish it seems to me that sony's response to squaresoft Final Fantasy VII seems like a pure clone and it took 3 years to develop... just think of it as a mediocre RPG experience I've played JRPG's a lot.

The gameplay is heavy as a ton of bricks, the battle system with the combo isn't really making the cut oh and get this uninspiring characters, not to mention the endless cliché of the story. To the people saying it looked awesome JUST GOT ONE FUCKING ANSWER FOR THIS : FF9

In order to make it very clear for LoD fanboys, Final Fantasy VII ain't the best JRPG I played and it's nonetheless as overrated as people say it is, it's still a great game and it gangbangs LoD in so many ways but to me what takes the cake is the Chrono Trigger/Chross saga heck even MonsterQuest is awesome.

I keep seeing the argument over LoD and FF7 but I honestly do not see it. Everyone just seems to bluntly state it as fact without any example or reference. I have both games, and I've played them both through childhood. I'm not defending either game, and quit frankly both of their fandoms are generally terrible, but I'm asking for someone to point these similarities out to me. Their storylines never seemed very similar, other than the one scene at the end of both games first disk, but other than that one scenario one game tells the story of a group of rebels fighting to defeat and evil corporation, and the other tells the story of an ancient war. Both games have an ATB but that's never been abnormal for an JRPG, and with the addition system LoD seems to try and create its own unique spin on the trope. I'd really just like to be pointed in the right direction here so I could at least see the accusations and decide for myself whether or not it seems plagiarized, instead of just reading more "I'm right and you're wrong" arguments.

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2) Post with an open-mind.
3) Do not insult and/or harass users.
4) Do not incite flame wars.
5) Do not troll and/or feed the trolls.
6) No excessive whining and/or complaining.